The time has come yet again for another episode of The Penguin. This time it’s the sixth episode of the miniseries. Read our The Penguin episode 6 review.
Despite my total faith in the series up to this point, the show finally has failed to one-up itself with The Penguin’s sixth episode. While what this episode does overall is amazing, it just felt like it was missing something, I’ll try to expand on that a little more down below.
As per usual, The Penguin follows Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell) in his everlasting journey to topple the reigning gangs of Gotham and become the Kingpin of the city. The last episode, episode 5, saw Oz make some big moves, killing the wife and son of Salvatore Maroni (Clancy Brown) and attempting to assassinate the mob boss, but failing, leading to his escape from Blackgate State Penitentiary. Meanwhile, Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) was on the warpath and rebranded under her mother’s maiden name to Sofia Gigante.
In this episode, the story further continues and we see Oz build his empire but not without trials and tribulations at the hands of his enemies. I think plot-wise it does add a lot, but it struggles to capture me in a few areas, specifically in its pacing, which does feel weird considering this is the shortest episode thus far, coming in at a tight 52 minutes. It’s this that has me feeling confused because, between the pacing issues and a lack of something to compel me as an audience member, this is easily one of the weaker episodes of the series. But that being said, it is still great.
The performances, however, continue to blow me away. Colin Farrell gives the highlight performance of this episode with a great portrayal of anger, desperation, and ambition. Cristin Milioti doesn’t get the opportunity to go ham like she usually does, but Carmen Ejogo shared a scene with her that was truly great. Rhenzy Feliz also gets a pretty good scene confronting Jared Abrahamson’s character, Squid.
All in all, the episode still is an episode of The Penguin, and that means quality. It’s just a shame that it could not continue that trend of one-upping the prior, but I suppose it had to stop at some point.
The Penguin Episode 6 stars Colin Farrell as Oz Cobb / The Penguin, Rhenzy Feliz as Victor Aguilar, Cristin Milioti as Sofia Gigante, Theo Rossi as Julian Rush, and Clancy Brown as Salvatore Maroni. The episode was directed by Kevin Bray and written by Nick Towne. It is now streaming on HBO and Max.
Up Next On ‘The Penguin’
Next week we can expect to see a payoff to that explosive final cliffhanger. Should be something that shakes up the status quo of the entire series. Two episodes remain in The Penguin, and as seen briefly in this episode, it’s Winter in Gotham. Could this mean a Christmas in Gotham with The Batman Part II?
The Penguin Episode 7 will debut seven days after the release of the third episode, on Sunday, November 3rd, 2024, at 9 PM Eastern Time (ET). It will be titled “Top Hat”, and will be written by Vladimir Cvetko, and will have a runtime of 46 minutes. DC Studios‘ The Penguin is now streaming its first four episodes on HBO and Max.
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